Six Brazilian artists explore ‘the extraordinary and the dreamlike’ in Bucharest exhibition

Wild Metaphysics, a group exhibition bringing together six contemporary Brazilian artists whose bodies of work explores the extraordinary, the oneiric, and the metaphysical, opens in Bucharest this week at Gaep.

The artists, whose practices are presented in Romania for the first time, are Thiago Barbalho, Maria Nepomuceno, Mariana Rocha, Guga Szabzon, Marina Woisky, and Michel Zózimo.

“The exhibition delves into cartographies of the imagination that extend beyond physical spaces to create singular universes in which the boundary between reality and fantasy becomes porous,” according to curator Sylvia Monasterios.

Working primarily in drawing, Thiago Barbalho creates compositions that bring together a multitude of references from history, high and popular culture, philosophy, and everyday life. For Wild Metaphysics, the artist has created four works on canvas, as well as an in-situ drawing.

Rich in color, cultural references, and metaphor, Maria Nepomuceno’s works evoke animals, plants, the human body, and landscapes on vastly different scales, from microscopic to macroscopic.

Mariana Rocha investigates bodies of water, bringing together bodily and cosmic dimensions. In her paintings, “cells expand until they reveal galaxies, while cosmic space contracts until it fits within a single vein.”

1. Mariana Rocha, Casa flutuante, barriga, nascente estelar, 2024 Photo courtesy of the artist and A Gentil Carioca, Brazilia

Guga Szabzon maps bodily sensations, memories, dreams, and inventions of the imagination onto felt. Using a sewing machine, she creates lines that seem to dance across the felt’s surface, as well as empty spaces where the thread has room to breathe.

Marina Woisky uses textiles printed with images – digital photographs of decorative objects and ornaments with organic forms – which she then fills with cement and resin to create hybrid forms that blur the boundary between reality and fantasy.

Michel Zózimo’s drawings invite viewers into a vibrant universe where animals, plants, and sometimes human bodies intermingle and merge, with no hierarchy among them.

The exhibition is on view from September 18 to October 24.